We first met the gorgeous Rianne and Dan when they shared their romantic proposal story with us, and I have been looking forward to sharing their beautiful rustic wedding ever since.

The wedding took place in August 2015 and both the ceremony and reception were held at Bradda Glen – luckily the Manx weather behaved and the day was blessed with warm sunshine and blue skies. Rianne tells us more about what inspired their big day.

We had looked around other venues but Bradda was the only one we walked into a thought THIS is where I want to marry you. Anyone who knows us knows how chilled we are, and Bradda Glen reflects that. We loved the outdoor/indoor look and wanted to incorporate a rustic theme, which the venue was perfect for.

We had 89 ceremony guests and a further 60 at night for the reception. Many relatives were from all over the Island but the farthest travelled was my cousin Paul from Dubai and my Aunty Sarah had flown in from Los Angeles the previous day.

What was your inspiration?

Rustic! I have been Pinterest obsessed since the day of our engagement. I didn’t set out to go for a rustic theme it just sort of happened, to be honest I had no idea what I wanted but there seemed to be a trend in the photos I saved and that decided the theme for me. Daniel had his say of course (we are very lucky that we both have very similar taste) I have no doubt he could have planned the wedding entirely and it would have been exactly what I had pictured.

Tell us about your –

Photographer: Sarah and Richie from Jewell Photography. We went with them because we loved their style. They gave us an engagement photo shoot as part of the wedding package and we let them choose the locations for it because they clearly had good vision and style from looking at other photos they have done. The best thing about them is there is 2 of them! They both photograph as part of the package which meant we got more photos of things that are sometimes missed by other photographers. For example, in the morning of the wedding Richie followed Dan around and Sarah followed me meaning we got to see what each other was up to in the morning and non of the magical moments were missed.

Flowers: Elaine’s Flowers in Peel provided our main flowers. My Bouquet of bright pinks, oranges and greens. I went for a silk bouquet after much mind deliberation. Poor Elaine had lots of calls from me saying I want real flowers, actually I have changed my mind I want silk… She was very accommodating and did a splendid job. So many people didn’t even realise they were silk! Now I can keep them forever and that is just wonderful! My bridesmaids Becky and Natalie had Gypsophilia bouquets with lace ribbons to match my dress and my flower girls had star wands.

Daniel’s God mum Stephanie did our table flowers and oh my gosh were they breath-taking! She had hand glued about 40 mason jars with different hessian patterns and ordered Gypsophilia in bulk. She hand-picked wild flowers from her garden and added a splash of colour amongst the Gypsophila to add effect. We didn’t go for table names instead we went for a colour.

One table had red coloured water with Gypsophila and red flowers, another was blue, orange and the other table was yellow. Steph had used food colouring to dye the water to match the flowers. It was so effective and much cheaper doing it that way! Although it did take a lot of time and organising by Steph! It’s the personal touches like this that really warmed my heart!

Cake: We opted for a Victoria Sponge 3 tier ‘Naked’ cake with fresh fruit and flowers which was made by Elaine at Taylor Made Cakes. I took my mum with me to sample the cakes at Elaine’s House, she was the only cake lady we tried, after tasting her samples we didn’t even need to try elsewhere! Delish! One tier was Raspberry and White chocolate, another was lemon and the third tier was Vanilla with homemade raspberry jam. It cost us £135 and worth every penny. Daniel is a bit of a Victoria Sponge Cake Connoisseur and feels the need to sample it at every café selling it so having a ‘naked wedding cake’ was a no brainer.

Entertainment: Chris Winchester Band provided our music from 6pm-9pm. I had heard them playing at the Railway pub and loved their style of music so booked them for our wedding. Then my younger brother Frankie took over with his specially compiled playlist! He had been on holiday in Mexico just before the wedding putting together a playlist for us-True Brotherly Love! He used Bradda’s Wifi to connect and play through his laptop-it worked so well. As the night went on guests began choosing their favourite songs on his laptop too so it got everyone up dancing and saved us a fortune

Stationery: Daniel’s mum Joanne had made our Table Plan Cards-she did an amazing job. Joanne and Davy had made and ordered us an order of events board which was stunning. For the name places I went on a family walk with my mum, dad, Daniel and brothers to The Waterfall beach and collected stones. Me and my mum hand wrote the guest names on the stones with gold marker pens. They looked really effective and so many of our guests have kept theirs. Plus, it was SO cheap to do.

Table Decorations & Favours: We had a girly Sewing-Bee day at Daniel’s Aunty Lynn’s house to make the bunting. There were 9 of us sewing, threading, measuring, eating cakes and drinking lots of tea. It was such a nice thing to get together as a family and make something we can keep forever. We had 3 legs of man chocolates from Davison’s Ice Cream as favours and they were delicious. Milk chocolate and mint chocolate-needless to say they were devoured and demolished! Daniel had been collecting the new 2015 50p coins as they have Bradda Glen on them as favours for our guests. The ladies at the Isle of Man Bank in Peel had been saving them for us! Very very sweet. Davy, who owns manxphotosonline.com had little ‘Thanks for sharing our day’ cards printed for us. Paul Marriott paulmarriottphotography.com had a stunning photo of Bradda Head and this was used on the favour cards as a background for the 50p coins.

Rings: We had custom wedding rings made by Celtic Gold in Peel. We loved the fact they would be one off’s and no one would ever have the same rings as us so we budgeted extra for them.

What details did you love the best? The hand-made ones. So much was gifted/made by family and friends. There are so many people who helped us and we are so thankful to every one of you!

Were there any other DIY aspects to your wedding? LOTS! Aside from the DIY mentioned above Daniel’s mum Joanne made our confetti and had cutlery tags made. Two of my mums best friends Wendy and Margaret cut lavender and rosemary from their gardens to go with the place settings and put together flower bouquets for the decking at Bradda where we got married. Daniel bought Sweets from Agrimark and made a sweetie bar-which was massively popular as well as Lego Men Vodka Jelly! My mum and Wendy had stencilled white hearts on the walkway through the Glen up to Bradda and placed white balloons along the fences.

It was all these touches that made our day personal and unique. We wanted the wedding day to be relaxed like us! That was very important! We went with the motto ‘if it’s not done, it’s too late’.

Lets talk fashion! Who made your beautiful dress?

I had tried lots of dresses on over here, and although the dresses were stunning I really had my heart set on a beach style, light dress and couldn’t find one I really loved. So I went to Liverpool with my mum and Bridesmaid Becky and booked a couple of appointments in the wedding dress shops there. Again, I just couldn’t find ‘The One’. In the end we gave up wedding dress shopping and went clothes shopping instead. It was actually in the very last shop that I spotted it.

How did you know it was The One?

It was hanging on a rail surrounded by really bright coloured dresses. The ivory dress really stood out and I just had to try it on. They didn’t have my size so I tried one on that was 4 sizes too big but I just knew I loved it. I went on a bit of a whim and ordered my size when I got home and when it arrived I was delighted. It was only £140! Bargain!

Where were your shoes and accessories from?

My little brother Frankie Gifted me my wedding shoes. Glittery Silver T-Bar Shoes from New look. The downside to buying my dress from a high street store was that there wasn’t extra fabric to play around with which meant that most high-heeled shoes were to high and meant my dress didn’t touch the floor. So I had to get shoes with an exact heel size – the exact heel size on the new look shoes my brother bought!

My something old was my Nana Agnes’s Eternity ring! It meant so much to me to wear my Nana’s ring on my wedding day and putting it on definitely brought a tear to my eye. I miss her so much so having her ring with me made me feel close to her. Something new was the shoes and something borrowed was my wedding headband leant to me by my friend Jacqui. And my something blue was a personalised anklet bought from notonthehighstreet.com

Where did you get your Bridesmaid’s dresses from?

They were pomegranate Pronovias Dresses from The Bridal House. A stunning colour for my stunning Ladies!

And what did Dan wear?

His suit was hired from Jonathan Daniels and he wore a pair of DC trainers to match the colour of his suit. He doesn’t wear any other brand of shoe so he just had to get them for his wedding day! My uncle Ken was shocked he wore trainers to his wedding. Dan’s cousin Tom was delighted because it meant he could get a new pair of trainers to match Dan – much to his mum Lynn’s despair!

What was the most emotional part of the day?

For Christmas 2013 I had given my dad a journal from notonthehighstreet.com each page has a different question…like, tell me about your favourite childhood game, what did you think when I was born? what are your proudest moments etc. I had completely forgotten about it until my Dad gave it to me just before the wedding completely filled with his life story. I cried with happiness reading it when I couldn’t sleep the morning of the wedding. Then reading it along side my Nana Rose as we were getting ready was just magical. I was just thinking how lucky I am to have such a loving family. Another emotional part was seeing my tough grown up brothers and my dad shed a tear or 2 (They will not be happy I said that) and another emotional part for me was at the very end of the night me and my dad went out onto the decking and let the balloons float away as we said goodnight to our family members who are no longer with us but always in our hearts.

What was the most romantic part of the day?

For me, it was stepping out in the aisle, seeing Dan standing at the end, up on the decking with the sun shining and all our family and friends around us. Squeezing my dad’s hand all the way up the aisle then giving Dan a big cuddle. That’s when my Dad cried and it made me cry too!

What was the funniest part of the day?

Daniel’s brother Mark had a dance off with one of our dearest friends Birchie in the middle of the dance floor. There were some hilarious shapes being flown about and Mark spinning on his head definitely happened. We knew it was serious when ties were tied around their heads!

What was the most stressful part of the day?

For Dan, the first Dance. He hates being centre of attention so until the wedding day we didn’t even know if we wanted a first dance-But it went ahead. For me-It wasn’t the day itself that was stressful-it was all the planning and setting up the night before

And the most memorable part of the day?

My dad’s speech – He gave me a baby size Everton kit for when we have children. Everyone was looking at me as if to say ‘is she pregnant?’ I made sure at that point to pour and drink the champagne so people didn’t get the wrong idea!

Rianne’s Top Tips!

What was your best idea?

Lego figures incorporated in the Bouquets and Buttonholes went down a treat. Only me and my mum knew about that one – we had ordered Lego figures to match everyone’s personality – My Dad got a footballer, Dan a groom, Me a bride, Davy a photographer, Mark a builder, Jamie a mechanic, Andy a biker, Frankie Woody from Toy Story and Lee a pilot. They loved them!

If you could do it all again, would you change anything?

Definitely get everything in writing! A couple of people we dealt with increased their initial quotes when it was too late to go elsewhere.

What is your best money-saving tip?

Take the time to shop around. My dress for example cost £140, similar dresses in Wedding dress shops were going for £800+

What piece of advice would you give to others planning a wedding?

Have fun with it and keep it fitting to your personality! Don’t be pressured by others and do what you want to do as a couple!

And finally – where did you go on honeymoon?

Cape Verde. The island of Boa Vista off the coast of Africa. Fantastic!

Thank you so much for sharing your awesome wedding and proposal with us! There is so much love and inspiration in this article! Below is Rianne & Dan’s Gallery with all the gorgeous images from Jewell Photography and don’t forget to check out their Supporting Cast for the full list of their wedding suppliers.